An American weekly news magazine Time has included Russian punk band Pussy Riot in the list of candidates for the 2012 Person of the Year.

      The punk band is among 40 candidates, who influenced news this year in different ways. The list also includes US President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Olympic champion Michael Phelps and others.

      “In a year when so many voices of liberty and dissent have suffered harsh retribution, the Russian feminist punk group Pussy Riot has paid a particularly steep price for provocative political expression,” the Time wrote explaining the choice of the nominee.

      Three women from Pussy Riot punk band became famous after their "punk prayer" in downtown Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in order to express their protest against Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin ahead of the March 4 presidential elections. The Russian court found them guilty of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred and jailed them for two years each on August 17. Later one of the band's members was released under a suspended sentence.